Masaccio, Holy Trinity (1426-1428) Fresco, 667 x 317 cm, Santa Maria Novella, Florence Flashcards
Q: Where did Masaccio establish himself by the age of 16?
A: Florence, where he was documented as a painter.
date, medium, measurement, location
(1426-1428), Fresco, 667 x 317 cm, Santa Maria Novella
Q: What is significant about Masaccio’s use of perspective?
A: He was one of the first artists to use scientific perspective, employing vanishing points for greater realism, moving away from the international gothic style
Q: Why was Masaccio financially unsuccessful?
A: When he joined the Painter’s Guild in 1422, he could only afford one florin of the six required for initiation.
Q: Which artists influenced Masaccio in Florence?
A: Giotto, became friends with Alberti, Brunelleschi, and Donatello.
(Brunelleschi and Donatello made trips to Rome where they experienced, studied and made drawings from Roman ruins firsthand)
Q: What knowledge did Masaccio gain from Brunelleschi?
A: Mathematical proportion and principles of scientific perspective.
Q: How did Donatello influence Masaccio?
A: Donatello’s classical art led Masaccio away from the Gothic style, inspiring greater realism and weightiness in form.
Q: Who commissioned the Holy Trinity, and where is it located?
A: It was commissioned for the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence.
they held a prestigeous competition
significance of coffered barrel vault and how donatello influenced this
When it was executed, no actual coffered barrel vault had yet been constructed since antiquity.
The architectural setting seems to be based on the niche for Donatello’s St Louis of Toulouse at the Orsanmichele. He was also influenced by Donatello’s sculptures in the plasticity of form we see here).
Q: Why is the Holy Trinity considered a significant example of linear perspective?
A: It marks the first use of systematic linear perspective, possibly devised with Brunelleschi’s assistance.
Q: In which medium was the Holy Trinity painted?
A: Fresco, a cost-effective form of decoration in 15th-century Florence.
Q: When was the fresco rediscovered?
A: In 1861, after being hidden by a Vasari altarpiece and a stone altar.
Q: What does the Holy Trinity depict?
A: An illusory chapel with the Trinity: God the Father, Christ on the cross, and the Holy Spirit (a dove above Christ’s head).
Q: How are the Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist portrayed?
A: Mary gestures to Christ, engaging the viewer, while John stands on the opposite side of the cross.
Q: What is depicted at the bottom of the fresco?
A: A skeleton on a sarcophagus with the inscription: “I once was what you are, and what I am you also will be.”
“IO FU[I] G[I]A QUEL CHE VOI S[I]ETE E QUEL CH[’] I[O] SONO VO[I] A[N]C[OR] SARETE” (I once was what you are and what I am you also will be).
How is Christ depicted in the Holy Trinity?
A: As dead on the cross, wounds still bleeding (not idealised), emphasizing his humanity and ideal proportions, based on Vitruvius’s measurements.
significance of the proportions on the body of christ
*The proportions of the body of Christ were based on Vitruvius’s measurements of ideal man and fit into the compositional squares and circles.
Q: How does Mary reflect physical and psychological realism?
A: She appears as an older, tired woman with wrinkled eyes, sacrificing traditional beauty for emotional impact.
traditional representations of Mary as youthful, beautiful, graceful and lofty. Here she is the same scale as the donors (not hierarchical); depicted as an old woman with tired, wrinkled eyes.
Q: Who are the patrons, and how are they positioned?
A: Likely the Lenzi or Berti family, depicted kneeling outside the niche, sharing the viewer’s space as representatives of humanity.
There is no Gothic hierarchical scale employed; the patrons share the same scale as the holy figures.
A tomb slab in the aisle in front of the fresco once belonged to the Lenzi family, with the inscription “Domenico di Lenzo, et Suorum 1426”, which is how they have traditionally been identified as the donors.
: What does the skeleton symbolize?
A: Adam’s burial at Golgotha, a memento mori, and the Lenzi family’s fictive tomb.
how is the skeleton anatomically correct
*The skeleton is the most anatomically correct to date in Italian art, representing the first human, Adam, who was supposedly buried and redeemed at the foot of the cross.
*A memento mori, reminding the viewer of their own mortality
Q: What architectural elements are depicted in the Holy Trinity?
A: A Classical barrel vault with Corinthian pilasters and Ionic columns forming a triumphal arch.
. This refers to his triumph over death.
Q: How is perspective achieved?
A: Through orthogonals converging at the vanishing point on the step where the patrons kneel, creating trompe l’oeil depth.
Q: What philosophical idea does the fresco reflect?
A: “Man is the measure of all things,” combining mathematics and observation with spiritual themes.
